First Links - 7.22.10

Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said on Tuesday that patients can choose to omit procedures such as abortions and positive HIV tests from the electronic health records (EHR) that every American is supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill has urged the clergy to use Internet blogs for missionary work. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church warned against idle talk or passing ones own thoughts for the postulates of the church. The Patriarch was speaking ahead of his second pastoral visit to Ukraine.

Patriarch Kirill sees social networking as an opportunity for dialogue and revival of the epistolary genre.

One of the world’s largest and most controversial Pentecostal churches has been given permission to build a $200m (£130m) replica of Solomon’s Temple in Brazil’s economic capital, São Paulo.

The 10,000 capacity “mega-church”, which is the brainchild of Brazil’s Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, will also house a replica of the Ark of the Covenant and be built according to “biblical orientations”.

According to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, planning permission was granted this week and church officials say it should be completed in four years.

Having met President Obama, Im confident that hes a man of conscience who shares my commitment to bringing hope and care to the worlds poor. But I am saddened by his decision to spend less than he promised to treat AIDS patients in Africa.